Twilight On High
by Knightfall1138
Summary: Two young lovers have a date with destiny on the fringe of Earth's sprawling cities.


Mass Effect:

"Twilight On High"

* * *

They call it magic hour. That special, transient moment of the day when the sun begins to fade away behind the horizon. When the light is scattered into brilliant shades of crimson and rosy red. For those on Earth, it's the most romantic time of the day, and it's ever so brief—so Belle and Ed made the most of it.

The lovers met on the green of Epsilon Flats, on a tree-shaded hill in one of the last nature preserves in the hemisphere—two miles from the nearest transit station. It was a long walk, but it passed in an instant. They held hands the entire way, their smiles never once dissipating from their lips.

On the hill, beneath their tree in which they carved their initials and a crude heart, they spread an old quilt upon the grass and sat upon it. They embraced each other, arms wrapped around waists, cheek to cheek, with their eyes settling upon the setting sun far to the west.

The color from the surrounding fields was drained away as the star disappeared. The blue sky began to turn red like blood, and it soaked into everything. Belle and Ed regarded each other, and neither of them could tell if the other was blushing or if it was a trick of the light.

Ed laughed and planted a kiss on Belle's cheek. "A perfect day," he whispered. "No one around for miles, with only the summer breeze to keep us company."

"How long?" Belle ran her hand across Ed's chest. "How long have you been planning this? You and I both know this wasn't spur of the moment." She tapped her boyfriend on the nose. "You're romantic, Edward Sullen, but not on the fly."

"So little faith in me," he said, mockingly aghast. "Belle Gosling, perhaps you inspire a man such as myself to no end. Have you ever thought of that?"

"Not once." Belle grinned a devilish grin. "We both know I do all of the thinking in this relationship."

"Oh, well pardon me." Ed leaned in and kissed Belle on the lips. "Then perhaps I just got lucky."

"No, I'm the lucky one," Belle insisted. "To think the most handsome boy in the school would come to sit by me in science class. To think that if girl hadn't been absent, then I would have been partnered with someone else and we might have never met."

"Perhaps it was luck. Perhaps we just gave good _chemistry_." Ed paused, smiling widely. A moment of silence passed between them. "Get it? Science class? Chemistry?"

"But, Edward, we took biology together."

"Same thing."

"Not really."

"Look." Ed waved his hands, taking the conversation elsewhere. "What I'm trying to say is that you're a special girl. This is a special day, and it still fails to complement your beauty. This planet birthed you into existence—it can provide infinite natural majesties but it can never compare to the glow of your eyes or the warmth of your lips."

Ed chuckled to himself and looked down in embarrassment of what he was saying. He held Belle's hands in his, and it spurred him on to continue. "It would be selfish of me to even so much as ponder on keeping you all to myself forever, but...I was never all that charitable."

Slowly, Ed picked himself up onto one knee. As Belle began to tear up over what she was seeing, her boyfriend reached into his pocket and produced a small black box.

"Oh, Edward," Belle gasped. "You can't...I mean, you're not seriously going to..."

Ed opened the box gently, revealing a diamond ring that glistened in the fading sunlight. It was as if he held the sun in his hands. "Belle Gosling—love of my life and the keeper of my heart—would you do me the honor..." His voice trailed off. Her choked up and his eyes welled up with tears.

Belle ran her hand across Ed's cheek. "You can do it, Edward," she purred. "Almost there."

Ed took a deep breath, wiped away the moisture on his cheeks, and began to finish. "Would you do me the honor of—DERK!"

The explosion tore Belle off her feet and sent her slamming into the nearby tree. Her back flared up with a sharp pain. Dirt and debris flew into her eyes and mouth and she could hardly even take a gasping breath. When she got to her senses, she was down on her knees, feeling her way through the torn landscape.

The dust settled quickly and Belle found herself looking into a deep, black crater where their picnic blanket used to be—where her boyfriend used to be.

"Ed!" Taking a closer look, she spotted Ed's lifeless hand, still clutching the diamond ring, sticking out from beneath a car-sized metallic object that resembled a kind of satellite. "Ed!" she screamed loudly and held her arms up to the sky in torment. "Why, God! Why!"

But she was met with only silence.

–

There was a light pinging noise from the next console over, and Shepard bounced with delight as a small orange flag popped up on the map in front of him.

EDI's voice chimed over the comm. _"Probe launched."_

"You're damn right," Shepard replied, kicking his feet up onto the console. "And according to this readout, I have discovered, ah..." His finger ran along the screen until he was able to interpret the results. "Seven ounces of platinum, three ounces of iridium, and...nope, no element zero." He scanned a bit further. "Huh. Looks like we discovered a small diamond, too. That's not bad at all, I must say."

His arms flew upward. "Go, Team Shepard!"

Joker swiveled around in his chair, looking a little annoyed. "Do you have to keep calling us that? I thought that name would've burned up in the atmosphere along with you."

"Anything that dies is worth keeping alive...I've just confused myself." Shepard stood up and stretched. "Anyway, with these newfound minerals, I can finally afford that machine gun upgrade I've been jonesing for. Maybe I can test it out on Zaeed, since he seems to be good for nothing more than target practice in any case. If he thinks the bullet in his head is worth bragging about, I'd like the see what he says about the others I'll be shooting into him."

Joker ignored Shepard's comment. "Still, Commander, I'm not so sure it's a good idea for you to keep launching all these random probes willy nilly, somebody could get hurt. And don't we have better things to do?"

"We _do_ have better things to do Joker!" Shepard replied, excitedly. "We have almost two discs worth of things to do! Why, we can travel to the Citadel and fix Thane's family problems. We can travel to Omega and solve Samara's family problems. Or, if we get bored with all that, we can head to Illium and solve Miranda's family problems or, for a change of pace, we can head on out to Aeia to solve Jacob's family problems. And don't even get me started on Tali's paternal affairs."

Shepard drew a deep breath. "There's such a variety of things to do that I'm almost choking on the potential."

"Point taken," Joker said, rolling his eyes.

"That's why I like you, Joker. You don't have family problems and you fly my ship without forcing me to go on death-defying missions to remedy your inadequacies. I practically owe you my first born."

"Okay, okay." Joker shook his head. "Are you done launching probes, or should I find another planet?"

"I think you should stop giving me that tone of voice," Shepard snapped.

"Or what?"

"I don't know. Do you like that leather seat?"

As the threat hung in the air, Joker sneered and swiveled his chair back around to face his controls. "Plotting the next course, Commander."

* * *

_A special thanks to Mister Buch. Here's hoping for Mock Effect 2's swift creation. =D  
_


End file.
